Acclimatisation
by restive
Summary: Clarke is not very good at relationships, but she's trying hard. Bellarke, Modern AU


**This is based on this tumblr post (which I cannot link on this STUPID website, but if you go to my AO3 profile (the nickname is "daunted"), you can find an actual link there).**

 **I saw it, and immediately thought "Bellarke AU". Do come chat to me on tumblr, I'm _i-think-not_.**

 **Enjoy, and reviews always make me happy :)**

 **P.S. Sorry if the fic is too British? I always find it hard to write in a more American style.**

* * *

Clarke is rarely _really_ annoyed with Bellamy, but this time is definitely special.

They've been together for about three months now, their friends having believed that their relationship was endgame ever since they met each other, and they weren't your stereotypical couple in that their honeymoon period didn't really feel like one. They knew each other so well by now (for almost two years now) and had pined after each other for such a long time that when they had finally gotten together, it had immediately felt like they were a thing for years. And instead of constantly feeling romantic and uplifted (which, to be honest, is how she feel from time to time, just not _all the time_ like it seems to happen with other people), Clarke actually finds that she started to get irritated by the smallest things. Like when Bellamy takes longer than an hour to respond to her text; or when he doesn't say anything to her tagging him in memes on Facebook; or how he puts his feet on her coffee table, without even taking his shoes off first.

What annoys her most, however, is that Bellamy never gets pissed off. Back when they just met, they used to argue all the time, shouting at each other to the point where their friends just ignored them both until they worked it out. But now that they are together, Bellamy always seems relaxed, just happy to be in her proximity, and whenever she starts arguing he quickly ends it by either agreeing with whatever she is saying, or just kissing her and telling her he loves her. And Clarke has to stop arguing because, well, fighting with oneself, without the other person contributing, just seems plain stupid.

She doesn't know whether Bellamy does that to annoy her even more, or whether he really is just happy with her and doesn't want to risk losing their relationship through a stupid argument. And truth be told, after Clarke asks him not to do something that annoys her, he usually does as she says. She has no idea why he always acts so cool. Nevertheless, it pisses her off.

* * *

Raven called it _induction period_. "Or acclimatisation, if you will. It's normal, trust me," she said, shoving Clarke's shoulder playfully. "It's the time when you two are getting used to spending a lot of time with together. Of course you'll be irritated from time to time."

"But what about our honeymoon period?" Clarke almost moaned, bumping her forehead against the table. They were in a coffee shop, and her gesture made a few people turn to look in their direction, but Clarke didn't care. She was too stressed about this.

Raven sighed, but not in an annoyed way, sounding more as if she had already accepted her role in guiding Clarke through the introductory stages of her relationship with Bellamy.

"As much as you two idiots are meant for each other, you're very different people. Don't you remember how much you argued before you learned how to be in the same room without being at each other's throats?" she reminded her friend reasonably, taking a sip of her latte. "Think about it. Both of you are leaders at heart, and while with Bellamy it's a safe bet, with you I'm _positive_ that you hate giving up control over things. And when you're in a relationship, you're no longer on your own, it's the two of you, so you have to learn to compromise. And neither of you are very good at that, but at least Bellamy is trying." When Clarke didn't say anything in response, Raven continued, "Your honeymoon period will come once you actually adjust to one another's habits because then you'll have more time to enjoy his presence, you won't be too busy focusing on things you find annoying about him."

Clarke nodded in resignation, accepting Raven's perspective as correct. Come to think of it, ever since they had both dumped Finn, it turned out that she was very wise when it came to relationships. Or anything, really. So Clarke decided to trust her, and just try to do better.

* * *

She lasts a whole week without bringing up any of his annoying habits, practicing counting to ten in her head every time she wants to raise her voice or say something she knows she'll regret later.

But tonight, she loses it.

They have a good night aside from that, getting Chinese takeaway and watching a few episodes of _One Day at a Time_ on Netflix. Then Clarke falls asleep on his shoulder, like she does quite often, constantly feeling exhausted because of the workload at university. She wakes up a few hours later, in bed (to which Bellamy carried her over, like always). She walks back into the living room to clean up the space where they ate and sees that Bellamy has already done it for her before leaving – he has to work relatively early tomorrow, and it is much easier to get to his work from his place, so he doesn't spend nights at her place as often as she would like.

But then she sees that her balcony door is open, which would normally be fine because it's summer, so it's not like it's cold, and she lives on first floor, so it's not like anyone would actually climb into her flat through it. Except that her parents asked Clarke to look after their cat while they are on a holiday for a week, and Tempest very much likes her freedom, so she can easily run away. And Clarke told Bellamy not to leave the balcony open and to always close the front door quickly.

And now Clarke is afraid that the cat is gone. Her heart sinking in her chest, she gets on all fours and starts looking under the sofa, calling out for the pet. "Tempest? Where are you, sweetie? Tempest?"

Ten minutes later she is sure that Tempest is nowhere to be found, and Clarke feels like bursting into tears. Her parents love the cat, they didn't even trust those expensive pet hotels to look after her while they were away. Her father even came up with a very thoughtful name – Tempest, his favourite Shakespeare's play. Clarke sometimes thinks that they got the cat as a substitute for having her around. Her moving away was difficult for all of them. And now Clarke lost their cat.

She is putting her shoes on to go out looking for her, trying not to panic too much because that won't help anyone, when someone rings her door. She opens the door, even more stressed because of another drawback and thinking about stray dogs tearing the little, domestic and gentle Tempest into pieces. Then she sees Tempest herself, in the arms of Clarke's neighbour (the woman's called Gina, she thinks).

The woman smiles at her. "Hey, sorry to bother you, but I think this is your cat. She must've gotten into my flat through the balcony."

"Oh, Tempest," Clarke half-sighs, half-sniffs in relief and unceremoniously yanks the cat out of the woman's hands. She presses Tempest to her chest, the cat purring in delight. "Thank you so much, Gina. I was about to go look for her."

Gina lets out a soft chuckle. "It's no problem at all. Have a good night."

"You too."

Clarke shuts the door after her neighbour and, having kissed Tempest on the head a few times, lets her jump out of her arms. She then starts feeling angry. Angry with Bellamy. She told him many times to close the freaking balcony door because the cat could run away, but he left it open anyway. She could've lost Tempest forever, and her parents would be devastated, and Clarke would've never forgive herself if that had happened.

She grabs her phone and dials Bellamy. He picks up almost immediately.

"Bellamy Blake!" she half-shouts into the phone, unable to contain her annoyance.

" _Hey, love. Why are you up_?" he responds, as if he didn't notice her tone.

"How many times have I told you to shut the balcony door? Tempest ran away!"

" _Shit, Clarke, sorry. Uh— What should we do? I've never lost a cat before. I'll come help look for her._ "

Clarke huffs, still upset. "No need. The neighbour found her, thankfully."

" _That's good. I'm so sorry, I completely forgot to shut the door. But I'm glad you found her. Are you going to go to bed now_?"

"Don't change the topic on me," Clarke says in a clipped tone, unhappy with him apologising and moving on from the issue so fast. He always does this, ending the conflict before she even manages to start it. And it's not like she's specifically looking for a conflict— Well, maybe she is, at least right now. But she deserves a better apology after what she went through. "Just because I found Tempest doesn't mean everything's suddenly fine."

" _Okay—_ " he says hesitantly. " _What would you like me to do?_ "

"I want you to not leave the balcony door open!"

" _I promise, I'll never do it again. Once more, I'm very sorry_ ," he said earnestly.

"Okay, you know what? I'm tired," she says and hangs up, completely unhappy with how that conversation has gone.

Bellamy – naturally – doesn't give up so easily. He texts her.

 **B:** _Clarke, talk to me._

 **C:** _There's nothing to talk about. I'm tired of this._

 **B:** _I'm very sorry._

 **C:** _Ok, whatever, goodnight._

He seems to accept it after that. Or maybe he just decides to wait it out and let her cool down for a while.

 **B:** _Goodnight._

 _Love you._

Clarke doesn't say anything to that. She still feels very annoyed, so she goes into the kitchen and gets out some ice-cream from the freezer. Back in her teenage years, whenever she felt stressed, her dad would always take her to get ice-cream, so maybe it will help now.

She thinks while she eats. She doesn't know why she got so annoyed in the first place. It's not like she had to spend hours running around, looking for Tempest in the streets. The cat didn't even go far, just climbed into the flat next door.

As if being able to tell that Clarke is thinking about her, Tempest jumps onto the chair next to Clarke's, and she pets her gently. The cat meows, clearly asking for ice-cream, but Clarke just shakes her head. Her parents told her not to feed her anything like this, no matter how cute she would be when asking for it.

And besides, Bellamy did apologise. Three times, or maybe even more. And he said he loves her. Clarke smiles at that, picking up more ice-cream into her spoon. She loves him too, that stupid dork. He must value their relationship a lot to never pick up on her attempts to start arguments. She thinks of when her father told her once that whenever her mother was feeling argumentative, he'd just let her win the argument. Because with some people, you have to think what more important for you – being right or preserving the relationship. __Being right is less important to me than keeping your mother happy, honey_ , _her father would say _._ And Clarke remembers how stressed both she and Bellamy would get whenever they argued, so maybe he's saving both of them some headache. Unsuccessfully, due to her efforts.

He is wonderful, there's no question about it. She's very lucky to have him.

Feeling a lot better about the issue, and having pet Tempest one more time, she sets her bowl on top of the counter and gets her phone again.

 **C:** _Are you up?_

Bellamy responds within seconds.

 **B:** _Yeah._

 **C:** _I'm not mad at you anymore, so I love you._

 **B:** _Lol. Love you too._

Clarke chuckles at that and goes to bed. They're going to be just fine.

* * *

 **Thank you so much for reading, please review! :)**


End file.
